Star Student of the Week

Colin was recognized back in September for being the Star Student of the Week in his class. I thought the comments from his teacher were wonderful, especially the part about his warm heart bringing sunshine to the classroom.

Student Recognition

During Bulldog Boogie

Date: September 26, 2008

Student: Colin Wester

Teacher: Mrs. Matthews

Reason: Colin is our Star Student of the week. Colin is always polite and uses his manners when speaking to others. Colin loves to help. Colin's great warm heart brings sunshine to our classroom. Way to go Colin.

Little Thinkers - Tri Again

Latest in my series of questions and comments from the boys.

When I asked Noah if he had a dirty diaper (as we are working to potty train him), he said, "No, but don't look in my diaper."

Colin has several books and now a couple of action figures from Star Wars The Clone Wars. Noah really likes it too, although he must think it's quite the circus as he refers to as Star Wars The Clown Wars.

A few weeks ago, Colin had some kind of test in P.E. during school. He was telling me about it, but he wasn't sure what they call some of the things they were asked to do. I asked if they did sit-ups and had to explain how they do sit-ups. I then asked him if they did any pull-ups. He looked at me really funny and said, "Dad, we don't wear pull-ups in P.E."

Jingle Bells (Oh What Fun It . . . Huh? What did he say?)

We went to Noah's school to see a short Christmas program they were doing. Of course we were proud parents, watching him in his first performance and proud that he handled the stage fright so well.

Now, what about the title of this blog? What does it mean? When you watch the video, listen closely the second time they sing Jingle Bells. The first time it was hard to hear the kids due to them singly so quietly and a screaming kid right next to me. But the director of the program had them perform it again for the benefit of the parents. During the part where they sing, "Oh what fun it ....", listen closely to what Noah inserts into the song. You should be able to catch a reference to another special day of the year. (If you can't figure it out, think about a bunny rabbit and what it brings...)

I got so cracked up that I couldn't hold the camera steady. Tammy had the nerve to say it's all my fault - What? Like I would have anything to do with my kid's being goofy!! I'm not sure how she came up with that idea. Funny thing is, watch Noah's face - he either doesn't realize he is saying it or he's going to be a great deadpan comedian.

Talking To Mark Twain

Recently Tammy took Noah to a follow-up appointment at Scottish Rite and afterwards she took him to a park that was on the premises. She bought him some popcorn and he sat on a bench to eat it next to a sculpture of Mark Twain reading a book.

These pictures are so cute as it really appears that Noah is looking at his book and talking to him about things (although in reality he was looking at something else and pointing to a pool of water on the sculpture). The angle she took these from is just perfect.

School Pictures

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted. Too much going on, I guess. Or just laziness. Or forgetfulness. I'll go with the first one, as I wouldn't admit to being lazy or forgetful.

Here are some photos of the boys from their schools. This is Colin's Kindergarten picture and two pictures of Noah from his Mom's Day Out school.

http://picasaweb.google.com/westerfamilyphotos/SchoolPictures02#

Pumpkin Patch and Halloween

This week we took the boys to a pumpkin patch, where they had pumpkins. What a concept. Anyway, they also had a petting zoo, horses, a hay ride and other activities. The boys had a blast and the weather was practically perfect. We had thought that morning that it might be too cold, but by the time we arrived after Colin's school, it was a fabulous 76 degrees.


Last night, we took the boys out for Halloween. We met up with Tammy's sister, Tracy, and her girls. Then we visited Tammy's grandpa and went trick-or-treating. Colin decided to be Optimus Prime and Noah wanted to be Bumblebee, both characters from Transformers.


Click here to see more pictures at the pumpkin patch and from Halloween trick-or-treating.

http://picasaweb.google.com/westerfamilyphotos

Super Heroes and Transformers

Both boys are really into super heroes and Transformers right now. While they are too young to watch any of the movies, we do let them have the action figures and they have several reader books about them. I think Colin now knows more about Marvel Super Heroes than I do. The other day, I was taking some pictures of them and they really wanted pictures of them with their heroes and Transformers. Noah has some Superhero Squad characters, just right for his age. Colin has a few McDonald's Transformers. I attempted a few pictures and then the boys got goofy. . . They must get that from their mother. See the link Wester Family Photos to the right for more pictures.

Noah and U.S.

Here's a video of Noah doing a puzzle back in 2008.  It's a puzzle of the United States and while it has the shapes of the states on the background of the puzzle to help, I would still be willing to bet he could do it faster than most teenagers. Check it out!

 

First Week of School

Colin's first day of school was this past Monday and there are some pictures of it to the right in Links, including this adorable picture. As you can see, Colin was pretty upset and afraid of going to school.
He had a great week, not that it should surprise us. But I was curious how he would do, considering his Mom's Day Out school was only twice a week, but Kindergarten would be every day.
His biggest challenge this week was a consistent cough he developed right before school started, which got progressively worse as the week wore on. On Thursday, we found out that Noah had cryptosporidium. That is the bug that is, for some reason, very wide-spread this year with over 200 cases just in the Dallas area. It causes stomach craps and diarrhea and he has had it for nearly a week now. We aren't sure where he picked it up. The most common place to get it is in public water parks, but we haven't been to one in quite a while. Then on Friday, Tammy took Colin to the doctor for his cough and the doctor mentioned bronchitis. Not sure if he actually has bronchitis or if it's just suspected, but we have to closely monitor him through the weekend to ensure it doesn't develop into pneumonia. So in the meantime, he has multiple medicines and breathing treatments. Hopefully, with the long weekend, he will get over it and be refreshed for school again on Tuesday.

The Wiggles!

On August 2nd, we took the boys along with their cousins (Diamond and Dream) to see The Wiggles in concert. They are a popular kid's music group from down under, Australia. They have their own show on TV and have numerous CDs out. Their music is quite entertaining and when I find myself humming the songs, I'm not annoyed like music from some other kid's performers (no names of purple dinosaurs will be mentioned here). They have very catchy tunes and the kids really like them. They also put on a very good show that's fairly painless for parents to sit through.
At one point in the show, you can give Wags the Dog a bone, so I made sure I had several dog bones for the boys and we walked up to the stage and dropped off the bones for Wags. It was very amusing to watch the boys expression the closer we got to the stage. Of course, once we reached our destination, we were right in front of the Wiggles as they sang a song, and I had to work to remind them what they were there for, as they stood completely awe-struck staring at Anthony (the one wearing blue). "Colin, put the bone on the stage.... Colin? Put the bone on the stage...."
There are some pictures from the concert posted at the link on the right.

At long last, another post

Needless to say, posting recently hasn't been a priority and other things kept distracting me. I have uploaded some new pictures at the link to the right. They include pictures of Colin's 5th birthday, as well as his pre-K graduation.
Next week, he starts Kindergarten. Maybe I should consider taking the day off. No, not for Colin but for Mom as she'll have quite an adjustment to make. :)

Little Thinkers - Deux It Again

Here's the second part of my series of questions and comments from the boys that are either downright funny or thought-provoking.

When asked what he wants to be when he grows up, Colin has been sticking with becoming an astronaut. But the other day when we were discussing it, he looked at Tammy and said, "I might miss you Mama, so I think I'll be something else."

When I asked Noah what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, "Not a doctor, not a dragon. A pizza maker."

Our next door neighbor has a teenage daughter that we have occasionally had babysit for us. Today, Tammy was talking to Colin about Brittani coming over to the house to play with the boys while she went to get a haircut. Colin asked if she was a teenager (because they had talked about Robin being a teenager). When Tammy said that she was a teenager, Colin said, "Well Mama, I don't want her to come over because teenagers have strange friends, strange clothes and strange music."

ABCs

We've been working with Noah on his ABCs and while he knew his letters, he had shown little interest in learning the sounds they say, etc. That is, until we went to San Antonio several weeks back. We took a DVD for the kids to watch called The Letter Factory (Leapfrog). Since we were in the car driving, and Noah didn't have anything else to do, he watched it. Suddenly, the kiddo is SO interested in the letters and the sounds that they make. Here is a video I took last weekend of him saying the letter sounds.

Little Thinker

I'm going to start posting a continuing series entitled Little Thinker. Some of the questions Colin poses to us are thought-provoking, while others are downright hilarious. He's beyond the simple "Why?" questions and now is putting far more thought into his questions. It's always interesting trying to determine how he came up with the questions he asks, as many times they are out of the blue. So, without further adieu, here are some of the more recent examples of the questions Colin has asked.

"Why don't people live on Pluto?"
"What if we were out to eat and I threw Earth Ace in the trash? Where does he go?" (Earth Ace is a character from the Planet Heroes from Fisher-Price)
"Did you know that all drains go to the ocean? But why are they so dark?"
"Why do I have to be big?"
"What do I do to make myself not grow up?"
"Did you and Daddy get married on Earth?"
Standing on a bridge at the zoo, looking at ducks swimming below - "What would happen if I fell?"
"Why does the moon follow us? Does it want to go home with us?"
"Why does my poo-poo come out of my bottom?"

San Antonio Trip

At the end of April, we went on a vacation to San Antonio. We spent four days there and visited the zoo on Wednesday and went to Sea World both Thursday and Friday. We spent all day each day at the parks, going right through the kiddo's naps and they did just marvelously. But as you can tell in the picture in the link below, they quickly crashed once in the car. Noah was out before we even got out of the parking lot. It was a blast and Sea World was a huge hit. Feeding the dolphins and the sea lions were great hits, and Colin loved the Shark Reef.



Shamu's Happy Harbor, a play area for kids, was a big hit as well. It had a huge jungle gym, probably spanning half a football field. It also had a small ferris wheel and a miniature roller coaster that Colin just loved. Noah was upset that he couldn't ride, but he missed the height restriction by 3 inches and they wouldn't allow him on.

On Saturday we stopped by the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch just north of San Antonio (next to Natural Bridge Caverns) and went on a drive-thru safari where we were able to feed lions and tigers and bears - oh my.... The lions looked more like buffalo, the tigers reminded me of zebras and the bear sure looked like an ostrich. We also saw giraffes, rhinos (although they were behind fences) and even got to go into a goat petting/feeding area that the boys just loved.

See the link below for pictures of our trip:

http://picasaweb.google.com/westerfamilyphotos

Need A Laugh?

This video is an oldy but a goody. Colin wasn't even a year yet when we took this, but I can still watch it today and find myself laughing. It's definitely contagious, so if not looking for a chuckle, you should probably skip it until later.

Photo Alert

I have posted some new pictures that we just got back of the boys. These were their spring pictures taken this month at Mom's Day Out. These are the first professional pictures we have had taken that Noah is genuinely smiling. It's so funny, as I have lots of candid pics of him just grinning away, but every time a pro has taken pictures, we get at most a look as if he's contemplating about smiling.

There are several more new pictures to be seen at the link on the right-hand side of the page. Enjoy! We sure do.

The pictures just reiterate the title of my previous post, of how time flies. They are getting so big.

How Time Flies

I'm still finding it hard to believe, but Colin will be entering kindergarten this August. He'll be 5 years old in just two months.

The other day, we went to Kindergarten Round-up at the elementary school in Wylie. Although we live in St. Paul, we are in the Wylie school district. The mascot at the school is the Bulldogs, but I've always wondered why Wylie goes with mascots like the Pirates and Bulldogs. Why can't they be the Wylie Coyotes?? That would be too funny...

We can't quite determine Colin's feelings about going to kindergarten. He currently goes to Mom's Day Out twice a week, which he really loves. I think he's more concerned about losing his current friends in Mom's Day Out than he is excited about his new school. The first thing he told the teachers during Round-up was his name and then he quickly advised them, "I'm going to come to this school, but not until August." He has expressed concern several times over the past few weeks about not getting to see his current friends anymore, which is endearing. Tammy tries to be sensitive about his feelings, but I just tell him to suck it up, that's the way life is, get over it! Just kidding.

Of course, he'll be just fine. He always adjusts so well to change, and although he didn't want to go inside at first, once he was inside and saw the library he was just fine. He loves books and thoroughly enjoys reading so much, that I think this will be his favorite thing about school. He's been to the public library many times, but who knew there were libraries in the school! Also, they have a really cool mural painted on the wall, with numerous recognizable dogs painted - Pluto, Scooby Doo, Lassie and Lady and the Tramp.

Also we saw several other kids he knows - Adam from playgroup, and Dylan who lives across the street. There are four kindergarten teachers, so will be interesting to see if either of them end up in his class.

Nothing Much Ado About The Kids

While this isn't really about the kids, it did start with something we were doing for the kids....

We take our kids to a gymnastics class every Wednesday at ASI. It's like a Little Kids gym class that they really enjoy and we've had them doing it ever since they turned 18 months old.
This past Wednesday, we came out of gymnastics and as we were putting the kids into our SUV, we discovered that the passenger window had been broken into. Glass was all over the inside of the car and I noticed that my laptop computer from work had been stolen.
It's a growing trend, referred to as "smash and grab", where the thieves not something in the vehicle and break in with only that one item on their agenda. They don't spend time trying to take more out of the vehicle or the car itself, thus greatly minimizing their chances of being seen or caught.
Luckily, since this was a smash and grab, the only thing they took was the laptop and it's bag. I did have some personal items in there, but nothing too significant except for a checkbook and my jelly beans. I can live without the checkbook, but the jelly beans just about put me over the edge. That's enough to make someone want to go vigilante! But they missed things like my iPod, some cash and some other items that could have been of some value to them.
When I called the police to make a report, I knew they weren't going to come out and take a look at the break-in. But I was on hold for over 30 minutes waiting for someone to assist with my police report. Tammy had her car there as well, so she took the kids on home. I didn't want to wait in the parking lot the entire time, so I decided to go ahead and drive home, but realized this could be fun since I had all these glass slivers and shards all over the front seats, floor and console. Since there was no window on the passenger side, there would be wind blowing inside which could easily blow the glass around.
As I waited on hold, I drove slowly to a car wash so I could vacuum the worst of the fragmented glass. Unfortunately, when I got there I realized the cost to vacuum was $.75 and all I had was $.50. The change machine was broken, so I couldn't get anymore quarters. After searching the truck, I found another quarter. Success! I started the vacuum cleaner and had just begun to clean the inside of the truck when the police department answered the phone. Uh-oh, I thought, as I realized the vacuum cleaner was far too loud to be able to hear. I quickly jogged a short distance away from the cleaner and began speaking to the police department to file the incident. I was disappointed to find that in order to file a report, I must have the exact address of the incident and I had no clue what the address was to the ASI we had been at. Annoyed, I disconnected the call, only to discover that alas, the vacuum cleaner time had run out and my last quarter was spent without cleaning up the particles of peril. I had to take the long way home, staying on back roads and bike paths in order to keep my speed and the amount of wind down to a level to minimize the risk of eye injury or death. OK, that's an exaggeration. I didn't drive on bike paths....
The next day at work was quite a challenge, of course, since it was my work laptop they had stolen. I had to get a loaner to use and there were some files saved to the hard drive that I won't ever recover. Thank goodness I had mailed a co-worker a copy of the large project I had been working on for the last week or so, otherwise there's no way I would have met my deadline.
When the claim adjuster for my insurance came out, he received a sigh of relief from me as I contemplated the positive benefits of insurance. Insurance is such a necessary evil. While you pay money out of your pocket for just these type of circumstances, you never really want any of that money back. But in this case, since they weren't careful, considerate thieves (I guess that would be an oxymoron), they had damaged the area surrounding the window and the glass track and had tore the seats inside when they pushed the glass in.
Now, dear old truck (Mac, as the kids call it) is in the shop getting fixed. Since it's a truck and not a dog or cat, it's getting repaired.

Tonsils, knees and emergency rooms

We had some fun recently when both boys had their tonsils taken out. They both continued to get strep over and over again. Let's just say that in the prior six months, they had strep more often than not. So we made the decision to get their tonsils out, and decided to do them both at the same time.
What a challenge that was, but we wouldn't change it if we had to do it all over again. For the most part, they seemed to alternate not feeling good afterwards, so it was never both really cranky at the same time.
But the day after the surgery, we had an ordeal where Colin complained about his knees really hurting and he couldn't walk. He did this for over half the day and his fever spiked above 104 and wouldn't stay down below 102 for more than an hour or two before it would spike again. Luckily my parents were here and Tammy and I took him to the emergency room, where we spent the next 9 hours as they did all kinds of test on their "mystery patient of the day."

What parent wants to hear a doctor refer to their kid as the mystery patient, due to his symptoms stumping the doctors? Not a good feeling at all. They did blood test, xrays, urine tests, flu tests and I can't even remember what else. After about 9 hours, the doctors were still stumped but Colin was starting to feel a bit better and could stand on his legs, although he still didn't really want to walk. They gave us 4 possible diagnosis for the symptoms: 1. Some reaction to the medication or anesthesia from the surgery. This makes me curious what they used this time, as Colin had his adenoids removed and ear tubes in a prior procedure (same doctor). Plus, why the knees? It doesn't make a lot of sense. 2. A virus that sometimes occurs in kids that age that they call some kind of "transitory" virus that causes inflammation and pain in the joints. Maybe, but quite a coincidence on the day after surgery to get this transitory virus. And again, why just the knees? Why no other joints like the shoulders, ankles or elbows? 3. Regression - sometimes kids regress after surgery. I have a real hard time believing this one. I could see peeing in his pants or acting like a baby or some other things to get attention. But to go for over 19 hours complaining about his knees hurting without even once forgetting and walking/running before he remembered. He's only 4, after all. I couldn't even remember that long. 4. Position of the legs/knees during the surgery. This is most plausible to me, as it's possible they strapped him a certain way during surgery to hold him steady and maybe the day after surgery when the pain medication wore off, he was really beginning to feel the stiffness and soreness from how they positioned him. Even so, nothing was certain. But the next morning when he woke up, his knees seemed fine and he was walking okay. What a relief! Still, it would be nice to have a definite diagnosis, especially if surgery were ever needed again. Was it something they gave him during surgery?

A New Web Site For Friends

A few weeks ago, I was putting the kids to bed and Colin said, "Daddy, my friends make me happy."
I thought it was a sweet comment, so I asked him who all of his friends were. He started to tell me all of his friends at Mom's Day Out (Zachary, Luke, etc.), then began talking about his friends at Mom's Club (Adam, etc.).
He asked me who his other friends were and I reminded him that even though they were family, his cousins were his friends as well. After he named all of his cousins, plus Grandma and Grandpa and Daddy and Mama, I asked him if he had any other friends he wanted to talk about.
He said, "Daddy, I'm really tired now and need to go to sleep. We can talk about all of my other friends some other time. If you want to know more about my friends, go to www.colinandfriends.com."
I about fell off his bed laughing, but couldn't believe the creativity. I know he hears things like "If you want to learn more about Bob The Builder, go to www.pbskids.org", but to put it together to create his own site for his friends was too funny.

A Start of Something New

I've been meaning to do this for a while, but kept putting it off. After all, a blog takes time, right? Will it just become something that eventually becomes like my New Year's Resolutions? Of course, I always stick to those. LOL!

But there are so many times when our kids say or do something that is either so hilarious or thought-provoking that I hope I can always remember that day. Alas, that's not to be for the vast majority as time marches on and memories fade (some faster than others).

A valuable tool is the blog, as I would love to look back years later and review my notes, anecdotes, and the joy of the kids growing up.

So, time for a concerted effort to publish the hilarious, the humorous, the absolute wonder in observing childhood in all it's innocence and wondering what they might say or do next.

Of course, I'm not committing to daily blogs. I would only be fooling myself. But I do commit to capturing memories.